What Is a Sufficient, Valid Reason to Hasten Death?

Recent reports indicate that individuals (especially in the Netherlands) are actively voluntarily hastening their deaths for all sorts of reasons, including blindness and general frailty.  It is useful to place these requests in context by looking at the wide range of reasons that individuals passively hasten their death.  



This weekend, avid outdoorsman Tim Bowers was badly hurt Saturday in a hunting accident.  The 32-year-old was deer hunting when he fell 16 feet from a tree and suffered a severe spinal injury that paralyzed him from the shoulders down. Doctors said that he would be paralyzed and could be on a ventilator for life.  (Houston Chronicle)



Tim's family had a unique request:  Could he be brought out of sedation to hear his prognosis and decide what he wanted to do?  Doctors said yes.  "We just asked him, 'Do you want this?'  Tim shook his head emphatically no.  Tim chose to take no extra measures to stay alive and died Sunday, hours after his breathing tube was removed.